Hikaru Nakamura

2026 Candidates Experience:

This is Hikaru’s fourth time in the Candidates. His best showing was in 2024 when he tied for second.

Overview

Hikaru Nakamura is a legendary figure who has won everything in the chess world except the Candidates and World Championship. Will he add these accomplishments to his resume this year?

A five-time U.S. Champion and the winner of the 2022 World Fischer Random Chess Championship. Hikaru was a mainstay of U.S. teams in the 2000s and 2010s, including the ones that won the 2016 Olympiad and finished second in the 2018 Olympiad. He has won all the major tournaments including Tata Steel and Norway Chess along with multiple Grand Chess Tour events.

The second highest rated player in the world, Hikaru is the top seed in the 2026 Candidates but there are a couple of question marks concerning his participation. First, will his inactivity the past two years be an issue. Since the last Candidates Hikaru has played less than 30 Classical games against his peers. While he has performed well, maintaining his massive 2800 plus rating, his infrequent appearances are a potential cause for concern. Another issue is how well-prepared Hikaru will be. As the most famous streamer in the history of chess, with millions of followers, he understandably spends a lot of his shows. 

The flipside of these concerns is Hikaru has incredible experience and recent events have shown him to be a master of practicality and efficiency in his preparations. Also, as streaming has become his bread and butter, Hikaru is now  playing more relaxed as he has mentioned more than once in his broadcasts.

Hikaru is 38, not far from the age Garry Kasparov was when he retired. The past few years have seen him focusing more on events with faster time controls and streaming. This might potentially be the last event at a Classical time control that Hikaru ever plays, or he could achieve his long held goal to play a match for the World Championship. Which will it be?